Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.19%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Telecoms Services , Real Estate Investment and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.19%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were GPT Group (ASX: GPT ), which rose 3.11% or 0.180 points to trade at 5.970 at the close. Abacus Property Group (ASX: ABP ) added 3.09% or 0.120 points to end at 4.000 and Metcash Ltd (ASX: MTS ) was up 3.04% or 0.090 points to 3.050 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Bravura Solutions Ltd (ASX: BVS ), which lost 11.26% or 0.590 points to trade at 4.650 in late trade. Syrah Resources Ltd (ASX: SYR ) declined 9.73% or 0.125 points to end at 1.160 and Lynas Corporation Ltd (ASX: LYC ) shed 9.03% or 0.260 points to 2.620.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 676 to 507 and 381 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.47% to 15.366.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.23% or 3.05 to $1330.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.43% or 0.23 to hit $53.02 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.60% or 0.37 to trade at $60.91 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.05% to 0.6979, while AUD/JPY fell 0.10% to 75.31.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 97.035.